Wheeling Gull Isle [M] i lie awake and try to recall how your body felt beside me

If his touch was a match, his words struck it. She felt a flame flicker up from the embers of what once was, deep within her. She sighed, and pressed her ruined cheek against his own, the warmth of him a boon against the chill of late winter. She clung, desperate and then rose, staggering in the deep snow as if drunk.

Her scent wreathed around them, and the gray clouds whirled overhead. You've always been enough, she whispered. 

And it was true, Maegi reasoned, as she steadied herself for what she knew lie close ahead. Her children were dead, her brothers were gone, her friends scattered to the winds. And yet, she remained alive upon the earth—and it was Mou and his unconditional love that anchored her there.